Customer Reviews

Kissology, Vol. 1: 1974-1977

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the 70s Kiss was it. It was cool to be into Kiss. In the 80s, it was the exact opposite. By the late 80s and early 90s the makeup was off and Kiss were a (no pun intended) washed up "bunch of posers."

This DVD dispels the myth that Kiss were ever posers. They indeed were always great musicians and they were the inspiration for many metal bands rocking your world today (rumor has it that while backstage at a 70s Kiss show Eddie Van Halen's signature guitar tapping was inspired while seeing Ace Frehley do it). And Kiss so happen to have put on one of the most theatrical shows in rock and roll history.

And that history is captured on this 2-disk DVD, albeit mostly with terrible video quality.

Man, did I ever enjoy being able to see the original line-up of Kiss perform on these disks. The thing is that the awesome performances on these disks are mostly footage from 1974 - 1977 live shows, so the quality is early 70s video...and that ain't good. Often times in the live performances there are major reminders that the video is dated: horizontal lines across the picture, complete picture blackouts and just plain old low quality video.

On the other hand, the audio on the first two disks is a completely different story. The audio wizards cleaned up the sound on Disks 1 & 2 and they've offered it with a terrific 5.1 Dolby mix.

After enjoying what was more of a front row seat experience with the quality HD video and surround sound on the awesome, 5-star Rock the Nation 2004 DVD by Kiss, the live performances in the Kissology set were reduced to mere DVD viewings. However, it was great to reminisce and watch as Gene, Paul, Ace & Peter went through their classics of the era. And the Kissology set that I got included a 3rd bonus disk that to my surprise was a show from Madison Square Garden in February 1977 THAT I WAS AT! (Bonus disks were limited with various versions when this was released in 2006, so check the set at point of purchase if possible.)

They give you:

DISK 1

Long Beach, CA (absolutely atrocious audio & video, but interesting to watch)
2/17/74
"Acrobat"
(previously unreleased track)

ABC "In Concert" (terrible video for a television production)
3/29/74
"Nothing to Lose"
"Firehouse"
"Black Diamond"

The Mike Douglas Show
4/29/74
Interview (comical exchange between Gene and Totie Fields)
"Firehouse" (Not lip-synced!)

Winterland - San Francisco, CA (in Black & White)
1/31/75
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"Got to Choose"
"Hotter than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"Watchin' You"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"Parasite"
"100,000 Years"
"Black Diamond"
"Cold Gin"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

"The Midnight Special"
4/1/75
"She"
"Black Diamond"

Kiss Alive Promo Clips 1975
"Come On and Love Me"
"Rock and Roll All Night"

Documentary: Cadillace, Michigan October 1975

Cobo Hall Detroit, MI
1/26/76
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"C'mon and Love Me"
"Hotter than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"She"
"Parasite"
"Nothin' To Lose"
"100,000 Years"
"Black Diamond"
"Cold Gin"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

DISK 2

"So It Goes"
Interview
"Black Diamond"

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
10/29/76
Interview
"King of the Night Time World"

Budokan Hall - Tokyo, Japan
4/2/77
"Detroit Rock City"
"Take Me"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"
"Ladies Room"
"Firehouse"
"Makin' Love"
"I Want You"
"Cold Gin"
"Do You Love Me?"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"God of Thunder"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Shout it Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Black Diamond"

Don Kirshner's "Rock Concert"
5/28/77
"I Want You"
"Love `em & Leave `em"
"Hard Luck Woman"

The Summit - Houston, TX (The best video quality of all the live performances in the set)
9/2/77
"I Stole Your Love"
"Take Me"
"Ladies Room"
"Firehouse"
"Love Gun"
"Hooligan"
"Makin' Love"
"Christine Sixteen"
"Shock Me"
"I Want You"
"Calling Dr. Love"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"God of Thunder"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Detroit Rock City"
"Beth"
"Black Diamond"

BONUS DISK 3 (Limited offer that came with purchase at Amazon in Oct 2006)

Madison Square Garden - New York, NY (Atrocious A/V, NOT remixed in Dolby)
2/18/77
"Detroit Rock City"
"Take Me"
"Let Me Go Rock and Roll"
"Firehouse"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Black Diamond"


Regardless of the horrible video, all of the performances reflect the great show that Kiss put on: clear, effortlessly powerful vocals, some of the coolest guitar work of the time, Gene's signature bass and Peter's 101 Hard Rock drumming sound.

If you were/are a fan of Kiss...especially the early days...don't pass on this. Just be sure that your expectations are set for a view into the past with the past's picture quality. The performances are 5 stars; the audio is 4 stars; the picture quality is 2 stars. The opportunity to have this set on DVD and the nostalgia the set offers are 5 stars.

Most KISS-o-holics, like me, probably know most of the content featured on this DVD set. But here is the reason why you should consider to buy this:
1. The quality (Video & Audio) is far better than on any of the bootlegs of these concerts that have been circulating for quite some years.
2. It is way cheaper! Look at it this way: You get 4 complete concerts and 4 rare TV appearences (of the early years). You can not get the same amount of material for that price if you buy bootlegs.
One must consider though, that the recording technology that has been used at that time can not be measured by today's standards.But that's okay, because for us KISS fans it's about collecting a document of the early years and to see the development of the KISS show, isn't it?

KISSology Vol. 1, 1974-1977 shows just what a powerhouse of a band KISS was in the early days. Peter Criss and Ace Frehley - who later became liabilities in the band musically - were in top form in this period. Peter plays with reckless abandon, and Ace plays with style and flair. This also happens to show that their earliest material (from their first 3 albums) was arguably their strongest up until Revenge in 1992.

The concerts in this set are shows that have been widely bootlegged, but the bootlegs were of poor audio and video quality, and here they are shows in the best possible quality. Sadly, a couple of the original master tapes have some deterioration (Cobo Hall, 1976 especially), but it's never all that bad, and the imperfections in the original master tape never last that long.

It's interesting to see the KISS stage show deveop from the very early days until the "peak" on the Love Gun tour. They keep adding to the stage set, and it gets bigger and bigger until you see what made the band's reputation back in 1976/1977.

The TV appearances are nice bonuses, and the "easter eggs" are fantastic lost gems, too.

All in all, exactly the set most KISS fans wanted. If they can release further volumes as comprehensive as this one (hopefully no eras will be left out - they need to include the Hot In The Shade tour, and the Revenge tour as well on future releases) then KISS fans will finally have the concert collection that they've requested from the band for years.

I think one of the reasons Gene and Paul put this out ( other than the $$$ ) is because they were taking a lot of flack about ALIVE 1 and 2 being doctored. Well kids, proof is in the pudding right here. Klassic KISS WERE TIGHT ! And ACE ! Watch the Winterland SF concert. ACE was better than Page and Clapton put together ! I have played guitar for 25 years so i can comment on this...ACE WAS GOD ! I and many others could play circles around ACE technically but rock is not about playing technical. Its about soul, phrasing, style and vibe. ACE had it...in SPADES ( no pun intended )Check out his vibrato he can do slow, moderate, or that high speed boingy vibrato only ACE can do...all with control. Check out the solo in got to choose.

The whole band was very good musically and TIGHT ! KISS was the band that made every song a rocker. Not like Zepp or Hendrix where you got only a few rockers and then ballads and 10 minute jams. KISS made their albums full of Communication breakdowns, Whole lotta loves, Purple Hazes and War pigs. They refined hard rock.

The only drawback to this DVD is that for the cobo hall performances they chose the first night. They kinda sucked on that one. The jam on " let me go rock and roll" was a train wreck. I wish they would have chose the same night that they have released on other home videos. The one where they play strutter on KISS EXPOSED The band was tight ! Other than that this video is of KISS at there very best.

This band was NOT just makeup and effects. They were a kick ass tight heavy rock band that took no prisoners. Also, Peter was a monster drummer. He hit that snare like he meant it yet he was a schooled jazz player ( he took lessons from Gene Krupa, look it up )...and you can hear it ! Total musical chemistry with this band ! LONG LIVE KLASSIC KISS !

CRAZY.. I wanna rock n roll all night - and party every day! This video boggles the mind brings back some seriously old memories - not necessarily of having seen Kiss as a kid, cause I never did. But magazine shots and a glimpse or two on TV before my mom turned it off (we were 6, and totally into it!) were enough to permanently etch KISS into the collage of mental impressions that I now call "the 70s". And while we used to pretend to be the guys in KISS in the same way we played 'Star Wars', I never went through school as a Kiss fan. Granted, by the time we were starting to really get into music in the early 80s, Kiss was no longer a phenomenon. But they were always there, lurking in the subconscious, whether you knew their music or not!

I just picked up this video then, to revisit a time in my life that would have put me in first or second grade - when these guys were doing this. What an era we lived in! These guys were outrageous. This DVD gives you a pretty good time window that shows Kiss evolving in the mid-70s with talk shows or visits to high schools in between stadium shows. They created a pretty good rapport with the audience during the shows, definitely what you could call a party band. Their gimmick needs no explanation although it's fun to analyze KISS. You had Gene Simmons dripping blood, spitting fire and making lewd gestures with his tongue (even when he's on the Mike Douglas Show in '74 - unbeleivable - totally un-PC but back in those days rock n rollers took themselves a little more seriously). OK, that's the freak side of the show. Smokin Ace Freley in his spaceman get-up is a classic 70s image, right along with charazmatic Cat-man Peter Chris. Paul Stanley, the front man if there is one, kind of balances out Gene Simmons on the left there, and while he is an energetic head-banging 70s rock n roller, you can kinda feel that he cares about the audience. In between inciting the kids to acheive ever new levels of inebriation, he's telling the guy in the front row to settle down "It's a party, not a road war", and "KISS loves you" -- When asked by a reporter on their British tour in '76, "What is most important to you - the spectacle or the music?" The answer: "The audience."

Other gems:

"What do you represent?"

"Destruction."

"Destruction?"

"Yeah, rock n roll - good stuff. Power, energy."

It's fun to see after all these years just how much energy these guys had and what a stage show they could put on. In the dictionary under 'rock show' it says in parenthesis (see also: KISS) - kidding. But seriously, seeing these shows is witnessing a chapter in rock history like no other. The band complimented and reflected an era that many lived though.

Gene, Paul, Peter, and Ace - the original KISS in arguably their best period - the earliest. It all culminates in the Love Gun era, giving us the band at their peak in terms of music, look, and popularity. Just before they became 'Ringling Brothers' and sank into self-parody (and later obscurity).

The shows and the songs you can't argue with. What you can argue with is that for guys who keep boldly asserting they have this unbelievable archive of stuff no one's ever seen before they choose to only show us footage that's circulated as bootleg for years (I've heard lol). This wouldn't even be so bad if they didn't then truncate the footage. I mean, why buy shows that are missing songs when you probably already have the full show at home?

But these guys know their fans buy EVERYTHING they put their name on anyway. Still I would have liked more stuff I hadn't seen before and the 'bonus disc' is just a cheap ploy to make you buy it more than once to get all 3 (I didn't, but I'm sure someone did!).

Still, the footage is awesome and certainly in the best quality you'll EVER see it!

The Houston show is such a legendary show that for me, it's the Holy Grail of KISS concerts, at least in the classic era. That concert specifically has it all. It has "God of Thunder" which began with Gene's blood-spitting bass solo, and had Peter Criss's jazzy drum solo. Ace Frehley did an awesome guitar solo with smoke coming out of a pickup. It has Peter Criss singing "Beth" and Paul Stanley was very high in energy.

The other moments are also great. I feel that the first disc represents KISS when they were just developing into this band. That disc was the early years. It shows a couple of concerts that were very similar, but they have different aspects. It also has a live performance from their Alive tour, where they performed the album all the way through. I guess that's the way to do things when you're doing a tour of a live album. What else can you do in that situation?

The second disc showed them during the height of their career, but when watching some of these moments with the commentary from Paul and Gene, I learn things that make me not like things as much. However, the shows here are some of the best. The film quality is also pretty good. Again, the highlighting point is definitely the concert in Houston, but the rest of the set is also pretty good.

The second KISSology boxed set continues from where this one leaves off.

I was a Kiss fan in the 70's, so I go way back. The problem I had with this DVD is that it is mostly all concert footage. I like to see documentary type stuff also. Backstage footage, interviews, background, new insights. You get none of that here. A highlight is Gene Simmons appearing on a 70's talk show in full makeup and costume, and a short story about Kiss visiting a Michigan high school in 1975. Other than that, it is mostly just several hours of concert footage. Good DVD, but not great.

Because of performances like the ones captured here, millions of people became diehard fans of four guys from New York who wore more make-up than your Mom. The shows here capture the band at their zenith. All four original members, all the bombastic power and some great, great rock and roll.
Shortly after the '77 show recorded here, the band began to implode into disco, identity issues and a revolving door policy for guitarists. Yes, they made a brief comeback but greed quickly turned the band into a joke...a tribute band to itself.
There will never be a band like the original KISS again and Kissology is a testament to Ace, Peter, Paul and Gene...the hottest band in the world. Buy this DVD and see us old guys remember KISS so fondly.

It's got some great stuff on it but I find it lacking for some reason. I guess I wanted more of the rare stuff like Long Beach '74 or the 1st night of the Houston Summit which isn't seen as much as the 2nd night, featured here. It's only two discs where the other volumes are four.